The NewAmazing

Grace

Conceived, Gatheredand Sequenced by

Edward Sanders

TThhee NNeeww AAmmaazziinngg GGrraacceeDedicated to the memory of Janis Joplin,who sang Amazing Grace so beautifully

Copyright ©1994, 1995, 2006 Edward Sanders(individual contributors may use their verses as they please)

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We urge you to sing The New Amazing Grace at peace rallies, fundraisers for good causes, at churchgatherings and public meetings of all kinds. It canbe presented, of course, in a very secular way. Itsmessage of always trying to keep a hopeful and upbeatoutlook is needed now more than ever. And please give outlyrics to the audience so they can sing along!

See further suggestions about performances of NAGat the back of this collection.

The New Amazing Gracepublished byBlake Route PressBox 729Woodstock, NY 12498

Each Daywe look to somethingto lighten the Passage

& it all comes downto a sense ofAmazing Grace

—Edward Sanders

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—Edward Sanders

The first time I ever heard “Amazing Grace” was when Janis Joplin sang it in the late 1960s. Shesang it so beautifully! It amazed me then, and the memory of it continues to amaze, thrill, exaltand offer consolation to this day. Her mother after all had been a Sunday School teacher, thoughJanis would sometimes sing “Amazing Grace” standing up against the bar in rock and roll saloons,with other well known musicians joining in on harmony.

The idea for The New Amazing Grace came on March 1, 1992 when I attended and read poet-ry at a conference on Arts and Medicine in New York City. The nation had recently gone throughthe Reagan years, and as it turned out we were beginning the final year of Bush 1. As I observeda number of panels and presentations at the conference, which featured artists, writers and biore-gional activists, there seemed a fresh spirit of hope for democratic revival in the words. Change—maybe even good change— was in the air. It was then that I thought of creating The NewAmazing Grace, which would celebrate the grace of being alive at the close of a crazy century, thegrace of poetry and the grace of the singing of poetry in harmony, and the greatest grace of all,“Amazing Grace.” And so that afternoon in New York City I began to make a list of poets to whomI would send letters asking for verses.

A few weeks after the Arts and Healing conference I sang at a Jerry Brown for president rallyin Woodstock (Brown beat Clinton in the Democratic primary in Woodstock). There was a unmis-takable energy and expectation in the room, and in the nation in general that spring, so duringthe concert I began going through my address book to compile a mailing list of poets and musi-cians to whom to send appeals for lyrics.

My intention had been to begin compiling the New Amazing Grace in the summer of ’92, butwork composing a two-act musical drama, Cassandra, and overseeing productions in the summersof ’92 and ’93, plus completing a new book of poems, Hymn to the Rebel Cafe, and much volun-teer work helping my NY State Assemblyman drive organized crime out of the solid waste busi-ness in the Hudson Valley— all prevented further work on The New Amazing Grace. Finally, inlate 1993 I mailed out about a hundred letters to friends and poets I admire, describing the proj-ect and asking for verses.

As I wrote in the letter to poets for verses, “We welcome verses on all aspects of grace. Althoughwe are eager to receive verses in the traditional sacred mode of ‘Amazing Grace,’ the new versescan be very secular. You should feel free to write on any aspect of life and graceful celebration.The only rules are that the lines be celebratory and speak in an upbeat, poetic, inspired, and evenblissful mode.”

“The text,” I continued, “and meter can be as varied as you want, with the requirement that itfit into the time-frame of a single verse of the traditional ‘Amazing Grace.’”

Right away I began receiving verses from some of the finest poets. National Public Radio airedthe call for verses on its program Weekend Edition in December of 1993 which resulted in a goodnumber of submissions from ministers and people in towns and cities across America. Poetry Flashin California also published the call for verses, as did station KPFA in Berkeley.

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It was difficult, however, to get New Amazing Grace verses from several of my heroes. Forinstance, Pete Seeger sent me a postcard that began, “Dear Ed, Sorry— I just can’t think of any-thing to add...” I wrote him back to say that I couldn’t believe that one of the greatest song writ-ers in American history— the composer of “Turn, Turn, Turn,” “Where Have All the Flowers Gone”and half of “If I Had a Hammer”— couldn’t come up with a 4-line quatrain for NAG. It worked.Seeger finally sent his verse a few weeks later..

The great bard Allen Ginsberg was another holdout. He telephoned one evening in late January1994 to announce he’d composed a verse, and he began singing it. It was rather scatological anddid not seem to fit in with the call for rhymes of “graceful celebration.” So, I broke in, “No! No!”I told him that the NPR piece had brought in a rinse of submissions from Methodist ministers andthe regular folk of radio land.

On March 14 Allen sent a note: “Re Amazing Grace– I’ve just not been able to do anything—or nothing’s occurred to me— my head full of panic at unfinished CD Rhino notes now delayingrelease of the 4 CD’s another 2 months, my overload responsible—I’ll still try— Love Allen”

I wasn’t sure he knew the melody and meter for “Amazing Grace” so I sent him a letter urginghim to keep trying, and I included the “Amazing Grace” metrical scheme:

Two weeks later he called complaining that he’d been up all night and then sang some verybeautiful verses. They arrived in the mail a few days later with a note: “Your last letter with bal-lad meter helped clarify the form.

“Here’s 4 stanzas. The last stanza could go first. Use 2, 3 or 4 of the stanzas in any order youedit. Thanks for the prompting & persistence— but I lost a night’s sleep working it over!

LoveAllen”

I decided to use them all. Allen’s “New Amazing Grace” was one of the finest poems of his finalyears. (See the letters and cards from Seeger and Ginsberg in the back of this collection.)

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Meanwhile I researched the history of Amazing Grace. Some of the facts are not clear, and theevidence, as so often in history, points this way and that. The hymn was written by an Englishminister named John Newton apparently in the early 1770s. It had been one of the Olney Hymns,a group of 348 Christian anthems written by Newton and the brilliant poet William Cowper.

John Newton, born in 1725, had come from a nautical family, and by the 1740s, was captain ofa slave ship. In 1748, commanding the slave ship Greyhound, had nearly died in a storm, andwhile his ship was facing the churning pits of the ocean, had a profound religious conversion.Later, Newton became a minister, and active in the anti-slavery movement. William Cowper alsowas active in the anti-slavery movement in England, and wrote a number of poems on the subject.I’d been a fan of Cowper’s poems— his series of winter walk section in The Task,, for instances,and his poems about his pet rabbit.

Cowper suffered periodic bouts of intense depression and in 1767, at the invitation of John

Newton, who by then was a noted evangelical preacher, moved to the small town of Olney, locat-ed about 59 miles northwest of London. Newton was the curate in Olney. It was then that thetwo began writing hymns.

The Olney Hymns were published in 1779. William Cowper’s contributions to the Hymns, 68in number, were indicated by “C.” John Newton composed 280 of them, including “AmazingGrace.” Newton’s primal inspiration for “Amazing Grace” was apparently the intense religious con-version during the time that his slave ship seemed about to sink. It was not called “Amazing Grace”in the Olney Hymns. In fact, “Amazing Grace” was not very famous at the time and for genera-tions thereafter as well. It is not, for instance, listed among Newton’s most well known hymns inthe 11th edition Encyclopedia Britannica.

Pioneers in America took up the hymn, and it became a staple of rural musicality. Back in 1992,“Amazing Grace” was still not that popular, not to the level of today when it is sung many timesat public events of all kinds. I was not aware when I began The New Amazing Grace that backin 1990 PBS had broadcast Bill Moyers’ very well received documentary film on “Amazing Grace.”

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I spoke with my friend Ed Friedman, the poet and director of the Poetry Project at St. Mark’sChurch during those years. We decided that the Project would sponsor the premiere performanceof The New Amazing Grace at the Church as a benefit for the Project and for the Church. We metwith the minister of St. Mark’s, Lloyd Casson, who wholeheartedly supported the project. We helda number of meetings, planning the premiere, and we were able to put together an outstandingensemble of singers and musicians.

I prepared demo tapes and mailed them out, and selected a sequence of verses. There were anumber of verses, or clusters of verses submitted that seemed somewhat similar in tone and theme,so I selected those which seemed the ones with the most skillfully realized lyrics. My apologies tothose whose verses are not included in this edition.

A friend, Rani Singh, acquired a tape of Leadbelly singing Amazing Grace in an interestinguptempo, format, which we decided to play during the concert and invite the audience to singalong. I owned a beautiful CD of Paul Robeson singing, in his deep shake-the-ocean voice, the tra-ditional NAG verses, so we played that also during the evening, as part of the presentation.

The first performance on November 19, 1994 went beautifully. As many poets and contributorsas I could I got to sing their verses. WBAI in NYC broadcast the entire concert. The performancewas a success, well attended, and in the months thereafter I continued to send out appeals. Someof my appeals went unanswered for years. William Burroughs finally sent in his verse, written insilver magic marker on his 1995 Christmas Card, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s came in while wewere both at Naropa in 1998. Such is the truth of keeping the issues alive.

A year after the premiere, there was a second benefit performance of The New Amazing Graceat St. Mark’s on November 19, 1995.

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It’s one thing to say, “we have to keep the issues alive,” it’s another actually to do it. I intendedto publish The New Amazing Grace and to record it professionally. Things intervened— mainlybook and writing projects such as 1968, a History in Verse, the first four volumes of America, aHistory in Verse, plus publishing a newspaper for 8 years and finishing several books of short sto-ries.

Then came the war in Iraq, an unjust, maiming, landscape-shattering, uncalled-for war that,much like Vietnam, dragged on and on, and, as in Nam, Americans planes and soldiers seemedslowly to pull back from the bloodshed, according to some kind of agonizing timetable, leaving

behind blasted structures, anguish, and brokenness.

I thought it was time to publish The New Amazing Grace and to urge all citizens to perform itin order to promote peace and to take a stance against the klingonization and excess militarizationof a great nation.

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I am very very grateful to those whose verses are part of The New Amazing Grace, listedbelow in the order of their appearance in the text:

Frank O’Hara, Peter Schickele, Jerome Rothenberg, Faerin naFior, Robert Creeley, Ron Padgett,Jane Wodening, John Newton (with one verse, “When we’ve been here 10,000 years...” written byanother), Allen Ginsberg, Pete Seeger, Miriam Meisler, Robert Bly, Irene Haupel Genco, PeterLeshak, Millicent Allen, Patricia D’Allesandro, Dragon of Ava, Missouri, Suzette Haden Elj, AnselmHollo, Velma J. Bennett, Robert Hadcock, Anne Waldman, Pauline Oliveros, Jack Collom, EdwardSanders, Mykel D. Myles, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Diane Di Prima, Helen Diacomichal Turley, R.“Dutch” Niendorff, Leadbelly, William Burroughs, Jim Carroll, Diane Wakoski, Amy Gerstler, TuliKupferberg, Lee Ann Brown, Vincent Ferrini, Ed Friedman, Jacqueline Scott, Bob Holman, PeggyHaines, Alfred Rabow, T.L. Noe, Karen Edwards, Dan De Vries, Fielding Dawson, Douglas A. Szper,Andrei Codrescu, Joanne Kyger, Maureen Owen, Michael McClure, Lewis MacAdams, Janine Vega,Daniel C. Strizek, Roy Hartry, Jack Collom, Carl Rakosi, Gerrit Lansing, Utah Phillips, Tom Clark,Clayton Eshleman, David Childers, Eileen Myles, Julie Christianson Stivers, Michael Kittell, RenéeGirard, Robert Hunter, Vicki Johns, Judy Hussie, Walter Royal Jones, Jr., Jan Kelley, Gretchen L.Woods, Judy Fasone, Gary Salvers, Susan K. Pate, Douglas Udell, Mikhail Horowitz, Beth Borrus

TThhee NNeeww AAmmaazziinngg GGrraaccee 1

Graceto be born and live as variously as possible....

—Frank O'Hara"In Memory of My Feelings"

I know not why my life is charmed,Nor how I earn Thy grace;But this I know: without Thy armI'd fall flat on my face.

—Peter Schickele

With Harry Watt, old Indian friend,we sang Amazing Grace,while we watched a new Allegheny flowby his old ancestral place.

And his ghosts rose up like pale blue lights,but found no abiding place,except where he sang to guide them home,with the sound of Amazing Grace

(Harry Watt's old house, saved fromthe Kinzua Dam floodwaters abovethe Allegheny River)

—Jerome Rothenberg

Great Mother, how your light breaks forth —How clearly may it shine!

Before our eyes your daughters rise,and know themselves divine.

—Faerin naFior

Particularity obtains 2where'er the earth grows greenMyself's an echoing ancient framefor all that once was seen

—Robert Creeley

I wish I were a little saintUp in the Tuscan airAnd swooning in a sparkling faintSpreading everywhere

—Ron Padgett

Amazing Grace, the moon at dawn,small clouds in the valley below,birds chirp, squirrel chucks,

coyote walks by:Today has begun to grow.

—Jane Wodening

(Here play, and invite audience to sing along with, Paul Robeson’s Amazing Grace:)

Amazing Grace how sweet the soundthat saved a soul like me!I once was lost but now am found,Was blind but now I see.

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fearAnd grace my fears relievedHow precious did that grace appearThe hour I first believed

Through many dangers, toils and snaresI have already come'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus farAnd grace will lead me home

The Lord has promised good to meHis word my hope securesHe will my shield and portion beAs long as life endures

—John Newton

3

I dreamed I dwelled in a homeless placeWhere I was lost aloneFolk looked right through me into spaceAnd passed with eyes of stone

O homeless hand on many a streetAccept this change from meA friendly smile or word is sweetAs fearless charity

Woe workingman who hears the cryAnd cannot spare a dimeNor look into a homeless eyeAfraid to give the time

So rich or poor no gold to talkA smile on your faceThe homeless poor where you may walkReceive amazing grace

I dreamed I dwelled in a homeless placeWhere I was lost aloneFolk looked right through me into spaceAnd passed with eyes of stone

—Allen Ginsberg

From quarks to stars, there's grace we knowThe grace of M-C-squareAnd endless more, above, belowWe feel the grace is there

—Pete Seeger

With knowledge gleaned from D N AOld woes can now be cured,Where once was pain and tragic lossWe now are reassured

Long days and nights of labor deepThese secrets did reveal,

'Twas first CF*, then Huntington's, 4Now D N A will heal.

—Miriam Meisler*Cystic Fibrosis

(She's a Professor of Human Genetics)

WILL WE FIND HEAVEN HERE ON EARTH?IS THIS HEAVEN ALL THERE WILL BE?O NO, WE'LL SWIM RIGHT PAST OUR BIRTHLIKE SALMON TO THE SEA!

—Robert Bly

Amazing grace extends to space,Where pioneers have flown;It lifts my heart, it fuels my faith:No place unknown to grace

— Irene Haupel Genco

Baptized by fire of distant starsStill beckoning the race,How ceaselessly we yearn for realmsWhere borders have no place.

—Peter M. Leshak

The cosmic streams that flow converge,We sail now seas of space --So let us vow that our tomorrowsReflect his stellar grace!

—Millicent Allen

I walked within a wood one dayand thought I was alonebut Grace was thereI felt her touchand I was saved from stone.

—Patricia D'Alessandro

5

Amazing grays amazing brownsAmazing blacks and redsAmazing whites and pinks and greensAmazing un-naméds

—Dragon of Ava, Missouri

I am a child of galaxiesof planets all unknowna child of One Whose majestiesrequire nor sword nor throne

—Suzette Haden Elj

I praise each day dawns on our bedto light your human formhere next to mine when night has fledand we are here once more

together in this raging worldthis human universetogether in this human worldthis raging universe

—Anselm Hollo

Amazing Grace, How soft that sounds,'Gainst the noise, All the traffic makes,Grace was here, 'Fore there wasAirie-a car,You cain't drive carsPast stars

—Velma J. Bennett

My Spirit soared one night in Dream 6And passed through the Gates of Time...Where I watched our Earth give wondrous birthTo a world changed and sublime

There was no crime, no strife, or greedThere Peace and Love were foundI saw no want, no lack, no needAnd sweet music echoed 'round

I stood spellbound in that golden soundAs tears streamed down my face....For the words of war were heard no moreIn that Time of Amazing Grace

Now I walk the street in the city's heatThrough 'hood, ghetto, and slumBut I know the hour of hate is pastAnd the Time of Peace shall come

—Robert Hadcock

The grace of all the bards who penTheir words do transport meSweet vowels & consonants strengthenGoddess Poesy's legacy

Sappho's bite & Shakespeare's wit& Dante's mystical climbDickinson's rhyme, bearded Whitman's breathAre etched in genetic spine

O I bow down to Christ's thorny crownAll sacraments meant to healThe Buddha's smile, old Yaweh's frownAnd Allah's consummate zeal

But poetry's a Goddess sentTo save a wretch like meShe strums the strings of life's desperate edgeWith her haunting melody

—Anne Waldman

A roaring sound I found a tone 7and sang till I could heara round of tunes that played my mindand changes came so near

—Pauline Oliveros

The western bluebirdsang among

The February sage

Its warbles sweet were roundly flungHowe'er the snow did rage

—Jack Collom

(play tape or CD of howling storm during next verses)

The Greyhound whirled in the violent seaWrapped in a pitiless waveThe captain and his hold were doomedTill the hands of Grace did save

Plato says we follow FormThrough every human stormBut Gnostic Inwit sets us FreeWith Gracious Graceful Glee

—Edward Sanders

We failedto seesuch gracethat Yedid sendto freeour souls.

When Mar-tin Lu-ther Kingwas bornLord yourbright lightdid show.

—Mykel D. Myles

8Amazing grace

descend on meAmazing grace

amaze old meAnd make my skeptic soul

my oh so skeptic soulbelieve in thee!

—Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The stars go out & darkness reignsAbyss spreads far & wideBut light rekindles in the VoidUnborn, it still abides.

—Diane Di Prima

The bear on mountain high and freekeeps looking for the daywhen he'll find goldin the honey treefor him and his friends, hooray!

The little ant stood up to rest,so happy she had donethe work she'd pressed

herself to do,and now, it was time for fun!

The daisy spreads all over fieldsto let the people seethe beauty ofits whiteness peeledto see if you love me!

— Helen Diacomichal Turley

I have a beat up pick-up truck,an old Ford RancheroIt always plays "Amazing Grace"though it's got no radio

—R. "Dutch" Niendorff

9Sing along with Leadbelly:

Let it shine on me Let it shine on meLet your light from the lighthouse shine on meLet it shine on me Let it shine on meLet your light from the lighthouse shine on me

Amazing Grace how sweet it soundsThat saved a wretch like meI once was lost but now am foundWas blind but now I see

Let it shine on me Let it shine on meLet your light from the lighthouse shine on meLet it shine on me Let it shine on meLet your light from the lighthouse shine on me

(see recording of Leadbelly’s version of the hymn)

Amazing GraceSave my face

—William Burroughs

A grazing spacecows greet my houndcats rave and kvetch’neath treesMy lunch was lostbut Joe, my hound,in time finds chow for me

This bovine lifewas made for meI till untilI’m doneThere’s no discosno wrapped Christoswhen lonely eat a bun

The town dispersedall desert boundto find the treeof love

which grows from sand 10as grace demandsits leaves like wings of truth

A barefoot boyran far aheadand stopped atopa duneand at that siteheard from the lightyes soon my child, yes soon

—Jim Carroll

Amazing grace, the morning sunThat shines like champagne ice,that glitters when we've just begunto lose our luck at dice

No gambler ever saw the light,No loser ever lostThe desperate hope of setting rightThe price his folly cost.

The pattern can be altered once;not every gambler's stuck.Just believe the morning sun'sA sign of grace, not luck.

Amazing grace, the morning sunThat shines like champagne ice,Don't trade the radiance night has spun,For hope at any price.

—Diane Wakoski

The dog yawns grace; grace spurs fleas' leaps,the baby's grace is drool.Until I learn to imitatethem, I remain a fool.

Wake up, wake up with lighter heart,and drink some lemon tea,

I told you I would soon get well— 11this snail on the door agrees.

A pepper grace, a champagne gracegrace swirled with marzipanonion smells remind this sinnerto taste grace while she can

—Amy Gerstler

Amazing race that came from apesAnd roamed the whole world wideYou learned to sweet the sour grapesAnd tame the roaring tide

—Tuli Kupferberg

Amazing Grits! How sweet the redeyeThat flavored my livermush!Fried okra, collard greens and chicken friedIce tea, lots of lemon, with mint crushed

—Lee Ann Brown

The red fingernails of one handamazing the black fingernails of the otherhow amazing to be & not be be& amazing amazing itself

—Vincent Ferrini

I dreamed I heard Amazing GraceInside my folks' garageFrom the dark a glowing radioWithin the family Dodge

As stations changethe tune remainsOn every band a choirLike a truth that's spoken every dayIn thought as pure desire

—Ed Friedman

Amazing budgets! 12O that they would,to citizens share abundance,Share GNP with you and me,and cease all the redundance.

— Jacqueline Scott

The Zap of Love I still recallIt's what makes me to burnAnd so I send this Zap to youTo find sweet love's Return

—Bob Holman

Amazing Grace —I loathe the soundOf that old mournful dirgePick up the tempoForget the wordsGive it a Dixie surge —

—Peggy Haines

(do the next two dixieland)

Appealing young man seekssweet young girl

to save a wretch like me,I loved and lost, am alone in the world,I hope you're the one for me

—Alfred Rabow

A lazy daynow swings aroundI'm savoring and freeI'm truly lostin random hourswith burstsof clarity

—T. L. Noe

13Amazing Graceto rise from bedand make your daily wayand not go downon th’ killing fieldsto earn your daily bread

—Karen Edwards

Cats race in a spaceof speed and graceHow fast they seem to leapBut when they're doneThey've had their funThey lie on their sides and sleep

—Dan De Vries

everything

the totalfrom

the beginningis a poem

oneand all

everybody

everything

allto

gether

ora

part any

where any

14day

or

night

forever

—Fielding Dawson

Our Jewish Faith, our Torah scroll,Retained in spite of strife,Have served us from the days of old,And brought us into life.

The only God, our Torah too,Foundations of our faithSustain us in adversityAnd lead us in our way.

—Douglas A. Szper(His daughter's Jewish Day School wdn'tlet her sing the traditional Amazing Graceat school talent show, so dad wrote this)

WHO TOUCHEDTHE HEARTWITHIN THE EAR

—Andrei Codrescu

And now I'm here, where sounds aboundMore Welcome than the sea'sThat started all this dreadful questAnd still is mystery

—Joanne Kyger

Jane Bowles' divan's left in Tangiers 15Her menu sinks at seaShe tied her scarf in a hotel lobby

"Time is gold, Honey." Sans litany.

—Maureen Owen

There's nothing but the Blackness thereGraceful as the grace to seeI send my eye beams sailing outThey bring back Grace to me

—Michael McClure

Amazing GraceHow sweet the floodthat rises withthe sun.My eyes are offeredecstasies.My work-days'salmost done.

—Lewis MacAdams

Amazing beauty of the earthdespite what man has done,Two thousand years, what are they worth,without the grace of home

—Janine Vega

On wint'ry trail the Grace appears;A clearing in the snowallows me to return to Love'twas there for me to know

—Daniel C. Strizek

The grace that lifted up my lifeIs free to every soulIt's waiting in the garden green,In Earth's creation whole.

—Roy Hartry

Eight hundred kinds of birds delight 16The North American air

But forests're felled in a money-fightThere'll be no nesting there

—Jack Collom

Meditation, be my finch

—Carl Rakosi

When all the malls go up in flame,and jails the mighty built,

then we the newly free proclaimthe Law: Do What Thou Wilt!

—Gerrit Lansing

Amazing Grass, how sweet the smellThat stoned a wretch like me.I once was straight but now I’m swell,Could see but now I’m blind.

—Utah Phillips

(Of course, you can find meaning to the verse above also by looking at Isaiah 40:7, “surely the people is grass” )

Feed mother earth our bad debris,Despoil her sacred groves,Deplete her once amazing graceWith puppet power shows!

Once more let Bios thunder forthAnd energy be hurledTo spread its voice of wonder acrossEndless cycling worlds!

—Tom Clark

17

Amazing Grace, Lascaux be foundin earth on which Dachau;a womb beyond repair,

imagination spans despair.

—Clayton Eshleman

My heart grows soreto see the pain

That oppresséd men must bearBut then I see your kindness shine

in acts of those who care

—David Childers

O present day I am undoneI’m neither day nor freeI step into an empty yearalarming arms for me

—Eileen Myles

Amazing GraceI’ve found my selfA gift no coin can buyThe search for life that’s rich insideHas set me free to fly

—Julie Christianson Stivers

Amazing Grace the sutra saysCompassion fills the voidBodhisattvas leave no traceYet tarry ’til all are saved

—Michael Kittell(in memory of Allen Ginsberg)

As life endures unending time 18Our precious world gives birthTo grace, a child who leads the wayto peace on all the earth

—Renée Girard

I dread no morethe desperate hour

That rends the fleshfrom soul

Forsaken by thisEarthly Power

That Grace will makeme whole

—Robert Hunter

Amazing Grace, how bright the birdsThat wing their way toward thee,They spread the seeds of thy sweet peaceO'er field and wood and sea

—Vicki Johns

Cries from the grave while still I liveI hear a distant voiceGrace to be born and grave to giveAmazing is thy choice

—Judy Hussie

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,From ancient chains set free,A long-lost hope once more I've foundFor light and liberty

For we can live with one-time foesAs sisters, brothers, true.And share our triumphs and our pain,Enfolding as we do.

—Walter Royal Jones, Jr.

19I've never played the patriot gameMy man came back from 'NamMy daughter now has gone to war,She wears his good luck charm.

The flag is ready just in case,To drape her coffin bare.Why do we keep on saving face?Korea does not care.

—Jan Kelley

What grace is this that moves in me,And makes my spirit glow?

As powerful as the endless sea,And delicate as the foam.

—Gretchen L. WoodsO Great Spirit, renew our soulConnect us to the earthIt takes all parts to make one wholeBreathe through us life and mirth

—Judy Fasone

As a child in Bible schoolmany years ago

I prayed to be God's tool—To till the fields of men

guided by God's handAnd follow the Golden Rule

—Gary Salvers

Those angels sent by God aboveWore faces of my friendsWho loved me just as He has lovedand proved grace never ends

—Susan K. Pate

20Should I come to know my final hour

My strength with peace replacedMay it temper then my will to live

And help to bring me grace

—Douglas Udell

When peace our hearts and hands employBeyond all greed or guiseWe'll no more bind ourselves to JoyBut kiss it as it flies

—Mikhail Horowitz

(The original verses once more):

Amazing Grace how sweet the soundthat saved a wretch like me!I once was lost but now am found,Was blind but now I see.

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fearAnd grace my fears relievedHow precious did that grace appearThe hour I first believed

The Lord has promised good to meHis word my hope securesHe will my shield and portion beAs long as life endures

Through many dangers, toils and snaresI have already come'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus farAnd grace will lead me home

When we've been there 10,000 yearsBright shining as the sunWe've no less days to sing God's praiseThan when we'd first begun.

—John Newton (except for the final verse)

I searched for Grace 21And found the placeBy leaning toward the lightIn darkest nightThe stars shine brightSay goodnight, Grace, goodnight

—Beth Borrus

(conclude The New Amazing Grace withthe ensemble and audience humming a verse)

22

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A good idea is to change keys and the musical moods for various verses. In the two performanc-es at St. Mark’s, we had gospel settings, folk settings, rock and roll settings, some plainsong andhymnlike settings, and a few dixieland and Intergalactic Space-Time settings, all of which gave theperformance a more beauteous and engrossing flow. Some verses can be sung with a single voice,or duets, trios, and some with full chorus. The meters can be a varied as you choose, 2/4, 3/4,4/4.... The essence is to conduct the concert with joy and hope. It would be good to give songsheets to the audience and urge them to join in!

PPeerrffoorrmmeerrss ffoorr tthhee PPrreemmiieerr PPeerrffoorrmmaanncceess

NNoovveemmbbeerr 2200,, 11999944,, SStt.. MMaarrkk’’ss CChhuurrcchhSingers: Tyrone Aikon, Derrick Alton, Coby Batty, Deborah Griffen Bly, Lloyd Casson, Amy

Fradon, Ed Friedman, Allen Ginsberg, Anna Hernandez, Leadbelly, Larry Marshall, Jeannine Otis,Leslie Ritter, Paul Robeson, Stephen Said, Edward Sanders, Steven Taylor

Musicians: Coby Batty, Deborah Griffen Bly, Ana Hernandez,, Joseph Joubert, Stephen Said,Edward Sanders, Steven Taylor.

Plus the audience

NNoovveemmbbeerr 1199,, 11999955,, SStt.. MMaarrkk’’ss CChhuurrcchhSingers: Tyrone Aikon, Coby Batty, Jim Carroll, Lloyd Casson, Diana Feldman, Ed Friedman,

Allen Ginsberg, Mikhail Horowitz, Leadbelly, Rebecca Moore, Jeannine Otis, Leslie Ritter, PaulRobeson, Stephen Said, Steven Taylor

Musicians: Coby Batty, Gary Lucas, Stephen Said, Edward Sanders, Jim Scheffler, StevenTaylor.

And of course the audience

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SSaammppllee LLeetttteerrss aanndd MMaannuussccrriippttssHere are some sample manuscripts for The New Amazing Grace. It wasn’t so easy get-

ting verses from some of my favorite poets and songwriters. As we have noted, one of my“problems” was Allen Ginsberg:

24

Finally Allen sent in his beautiful & amazing verses:

Card from Pete Seeger early 1994:

We replied to Pete, to nudge him, 25and he came through!

Carl Rakosi:

Robert Creeley 26

and:

27

28“Surely the People is Grass,” Isaiah 40:7

Ron Padgett. We selected quatrain 5

29Joanne Kyger’s elegant signature

Michael McClure

30Harry Watts, Amazing Grace, the Lights

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TThhaannkkss

My gratitude to the many people who helped in this project— to Ed Friedman for setting up theperformances at St. Mark’s, to Reverend Canon Lloyd Casson, Rani Singh for the tape of Leadbellyand helping with the performances, Bill Belmont for trying to get funding for recording NAG, tosound technicians John Fisk and David Nolan at the Poetry Project, to Joanne Wasserman, BrendaCoultas, and other volunteers,

and of course gratitude to the musicians and singers, including Tyrone Aikon, Derrick Alton,Deborah Griffen Bly, Coby Batty, Diane Feldman, Amy Fradon, Ana Hernandez, Joseph Joubert,Gary Lucas, Larry Marshall, Rebecca Moore, Jeannine Otis, Scott Petito, Leslie Ritter, Stephan Said,Jim Scheffler, and Steven Taylor

and to the poets who sang their verses at the performances: Allen Ginsberg, Ed Friedman, LeeAnn Brown, Jim Carroll, and Mikhail Horowitz.

—Edward SandersWoodstock, New York